German great Lahm to retire at end of the season
berlin — Bayern Munich’s captain Philipp Lahm, who announced on Tuesday he will retire from all football at the end of the season, is one of the greatest defenders of his generation.
He will stand down in June, just a few months shy of his 34th birthday, with Bayern currently bidding to win a fifth straight German league title.
But his crowning glory was nearly three years prior when he led Germany to the 2014 World Cup title. At Rio de Janeiro’s Maracana he joined an elite club of 20 World Cup winning captains, which puts him up with Diego Maradona, Franz Beckenbauer and Bobby Moore.
Lahm has not always had an easy career, battling with injury and the hierarchy at his lifelong club Bayern Munich, for whom he made his 501st appearance on Tuesday.
Ex-Bayern coach Pepe Guardiola once described Lahm as “the most intelligent footballer I have ever managed” and often switched him from right-back to midfield.
“Philipp can play anywhere, he could be our striker if we asked him,” Guardiola added.
Lahm, who played 113 games in a decade of international duty for Germany, joined Bayern as an 11-year-old in 1995.
Back then, he saw himself as an attacking midfielder in the mould of Mehmet Scholl, a pillar of the Bayern team of the 1990s and 2000s.
But when the club decided his best place was as a defender, Italian tough guy Paolo Maldini became his hero.